Dreaded Word: Irregular

Some of us have had lots of “irregular” mammograms.
The call comes, saying “We need to do another mam-
mogram. There’s a questionable area we need to re-
check.” So we trudge in, scared witless about what’s
wrong, only to discover that it’s nothing after all. But
then one day a different call comes. You may be told
your mammogram shows a lump or microcalcifications,
tiny specks of calcium. Scattered specks aren’t likely to
be a problem, but a tight cluster of such deposits is
most likely pre-cancerous. (More on this in Chapter 3,
“Learning a New Vocabulary.”) But a mammogram can’t
diagnose for certain that a lump or a cluster of micro-
calcifications is breast cancer. Only a biopsy can do
that.